The B2B Playbook #220: Why B2B Partnerships Might Be Your Biggest Growth Opportunity Right Now
In this video, we dive into why B2B partnerships are one of the most powerful (and underused) growth strategies in 2026, and how to get your first one off the ground.
We cover:
Why partnerships act as a trust shortcut with your target audience, how rising paid media costs (up ~14% per year) are making partnerships more essential than ever, and the exact 4-step framework to land your first B2B partnership.
If you are a B2B marketer or founder struggling with rising customer acquisition costs and want a more affordable, high-trust way to reach your ideal customers.
Tune in and learn:
- Why partnerships transfer trust from aligned brands to your audience
- How overlapping ICPs make partnerships more effective than cold outreach
- Why AI-generated content is making owned audiences even more valuable
- The importance of executive buy-in and clear KPIs to make partnerships stick
- Brian's #1 tip: don't go for the big fish first. Start with complementary, similarly-sized partners
- The 4-step action framework: identify, shortlist (top 3–5), reach out, and go deep
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🔗 Links + CTAs
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Timestamps:
00:00 – Why partnerships are a trust shortcut
00:56 – Welcome to Season 8 (first in-person recording!)
02:14 – The Five Bs Framework recap
10:52 – Why noise is getting worse (and what to do about it)
12:18 – The real-life analogy: partnerships as personal introductions
14:24 – Rising paid media costs & the 14% CAC benchmark
16:14 – How partnerships help share distribution costs
18:08 – Why AI makes trust-based channels even more important
20:04 – Key ingredients: overlapping ICP & give-and-get relationships
24:22 – Getting executive buy-in & setting clear KPIs
26:13 – The fastest way to kill a partnership
29:14 – The 4-step action framework to get started this week
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S08 E220 - The B2B Playbook
#b2b #partnerships #b2bmarketing